r^^-^^'^ 



Approaching'^ 
i ^Putting 




d, 



it,V^ 







DRIVING, APPROACHING, 
PUTTING 



DRIVING 

APPROACHING 

PUTTING 



BY 

EDWARD RAY 



NEW YORK 

ROBERT M. McBRIDE ^ COMPANY 

1922 



^ 



/ 



^ 



-t 



5 ^3 3 IT 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER PAGE 

I. IRON PLAY - - - - I 

II. APPROACH PLAY - - - - 4 

III. THE MASHIE - - - - 6 

IV. FOR SCOFFING BEGINNERS - - 12 
V. THE PUSH SHOT - - - - l6 

VI. HAZARDS - - - - - 19 

VII. THE WATER HAZARD •• - - 22 

VIII. PLAYING IN THE WIND - - - 24 

IX. PUTTING QUESTIONS - - - 29 

X. ADVICE AT RANDOM - - - 33 

XI. BRITISH GOLF COURSES - - - 40 

INDEX - - - - - 47 



DRIVING, APPROACHING, 
PUTTING 



CHAPTER I 
IRON PLAY 

TO many, iron play is one of the most attractive 
features of golf, and in commencing a chapter 
on this theme I would advocate a fairly open position 
for the feet, a stance rather closer to the ball than 
when employing wooden clubs, something short of 
a full swing, a firm grip, an avoidance of too much 
looseness of the legs, not too much force, and keeping 
in mind that more important than distance is straight- 
ness. The iron shot demands an open position of 
the feet, and the arms must not be allowed to drift 
too far away from the body. Again, if the feet are 
allowed to go " all over the shop," or are kept too 
closely together, the balance is affected adversely, 
and inevitably the swing will not be correct, for the 
simple reason that it cannot be correct. Whatever 
weight the golfer has should be divided equally 
between the two feet in iron play, and in this depart- 
ment of the game I am convinced that steadiness on 
the feet is something to be aimed at in the novitiate 
stage and achieved in later days. Perhaps it is that 
in mentioning steadiness on the feet at a given stroke 



2 DRIVING, APPROACHING, PUTTING 

in golf I am courting criticism, for no one in the 
professional ranks has been more good naturedly 
jibed at than myself concerning the feet when play- 
ing, say, the tee shot, and, in fact, one gentleman 
remarked to me recently that had I not taken up golf 
as a profession, my footwork would have assured me 
of success as a pugilist. 

When I say that a firm grip should be taken of the 
iron club, I do not for a moment mean to convey that 
the club should be grasped much in a style as if the 
player were afraid that the total membership of his 
club were going to come out on the course en masse 
and endeavour to wrest it from him, but at the same 
time I would point out that loose gripping in iron 
play is an unpardonable sin, and one which will bring 
about the disaster for which it silently asks. Re- 
member that when the head of the iron club comes 
in contact with the ground, which is one of its func- 
tions, it will do so with such force as to necessitate a 
good and healthy grip, and if that said good and 
healthy grip be non-existent, then so will the good 
points in your stroke. 

I have already said that something short of a full 
swing is requisite for the plajdng of the iron shot, and 
if I were asked specifically to say the exact nature 
and dimensions of the swing which I have found most 
profitable in iron club play, I would say just about 
the three-quarter swing. A full swing in this case 
will certainly gain height, but one thing it will not 
obtain to any normal extent is distance. An item 
to be kept in mind in this matter is that in playing 
the iron there is little or no latitude for error, for the 
reason that the iron shot is useful in getting up to 



IRON PLAY 3 

the green, but what is of no use to you is the arrival 
of your ball in a yawning bunker. 

Whilst it is erroneous to press when using the iron 
club, it is advisable to let the club go well through 
without too much hindrance and check, as checking 
will have the effect of shortening your distance. In 
the up-swing the right leg should be steady, while 
the left ought to move inwards a trifle. In the down- 
swing I generally contrive to make the club head 
meet the ball just before the club has reached its 
lowest point, so that the effect is that the club, more 
or less, swoops down on the ball, though, at the same 
time, I always endeavour to get a certain amount of 
pith into the stroke. Once the ball has flown away 
from the iron, the left leg should bear your weight. 

If you are confronted by a bunker, there is no 
necessity to make your ball, in a measure, emulate an 
aeroplane, and here I would suggest taking the stance 
rather in front of the ball, or by a more acute swing. 

TEE SHOTS WITH IRON CLUBS 

Occasionally an iron club will be found useful in 
the playing of the tee shot, and personally I believe 
in the use of a very small sand tee, even when playing 
an iron club, in such a position on inland courses, 
though such a proceeding is not so valuable at the 
seaside, if for no other reason than that a teeing 
ground on an inland course does not stand the same 
amount of abrasion as wiU the teeing ground on a 
seaside course. At the same time you can get the 
ball away in a more clean manner from a sand tee 
than you can without a tee, and naturally you will 
get a greater degree of accuracy. 



CHAPTER II 
APPROACH PLAY 

NO need for me to stir up the old controversy as 
to the respective merits of the pitch shot and 
the run up, but it will suffice if I at once say that 
out and out I am for the pitch. My old friend 
J. H. Taylor, many years ago, brought this stroke to 
a point as near to perfection as I am sure it ever will be, 
and something close upon thirty years ago he proved 
when he was the first English professional to win the 
Open Championship, that there was more than a 
little to be said for the pitch up to the green. Probably 
one of the finest efforts I ever saw on the golf course 
in the way of a pitch was at Roehampton, in the clos- 
ing stages of a professional tournament in 1921, which 
was won by Taylor. His ball lay in a sand bunker 
only a matter of feet from the pin, and it may safely 
be said that that was the most important moment 
throughout the tournament. The majority of the 
lookers-on were in a quandary as to how Taylor was 
going to play the stroke, but, to the consternation 
of those who watched, he thrashed his club head into 
the sand quite four inches behind the ball, which he 
proceeded to lay within two inches of the hole. Of 
course, there was no question of a run up there, but 
it went to prove how successfully Taylor had studied 
the intricacies of a stroke from within short distance 
of the flag. Had J. H. Taylor not given the most 

4 



APPROACH PLAY 5 

careful attention to his approach play for years and 
years, he would never thought of playing such a 
stroke as I have just described. Therefore, I say 
that at least one of the most valuable items in golf 
is the essay from within a short distance of the pin. 

Incidentally, the pitch to the green is one of the 
most perplexing of all the strokes in golf from the 
point of view of the beginner, and, if only for that 
reason, I would recommend the golfing student to 
give it most constant and thorough attention. It 
is not so much the success of a well played approach 
that I have in mind, but rather the fiendish conse- 
quences which foUow a faultily played pitch. 



CHAPTER III 
THE MASHIE 

IN employing the mashie, a firm grip again is 
essential, for, as in the case of other iron clubs, 
it will strike the ground with a violence which may- 
well cause it to twist in the hands. As for the feet 
they may be a little more apart than is usual, while 
the left foot should be about fifteen inches in advance 
of the right, and the weight of the body on the right 
foot more than on the left. There should be a slight 
bending of the knees, and the blade of the club should 
be turned out a little, so that, as it comes in contact 
with the ball, it cuts across it. All the time the right 
elbow should be kept fairly well into the side so as 
to avoid pushing the club out. 

Neglect to ease the left knee in taking the club back 
may bring about a terrible error in direction, as the 
club cannot be brought across the front of the body, 
the left elbow flying out. As a matter of fact, one 
of the most important things in the playing of the 
mashie is this bending of the left knee. 

In the event of an exceptionally short stroke being 
requisite, the necessity to move the knees or to raise 
the left heel is not incumbent, and one item of advice 
which I would proffer, is to observe the stationary 
element so far as both heels may be concerned, I 
know well that the idea of both feet well implanted 
on the ground may raise a laugh here and there, but 

6 



THE MASHIE 7 

the problem of immovable feet is an essential one, 
and, I might remark, so is the advice of stillness of 
the head. I am quite aware of the number of players 
who will insist on a shuffle of the feet, and who find 
the temptation to let the head follow the club, but to 
all the myriads who will indulge in this weakness I 
can commend no more golden rule than to watch 
an expert such as J. H. Taylor in the execution of 
this stroke. As a matter of fact, when it comes to 
approach play there is no weakness which can be 
indulged in with such disastrous effects. A move- 
ment of the head is a huge temptation, and one 
which apparently cannot be denied the beginner. 
Lifting the head seems to be utterly imperative in 
the case of many golfers, and yet I would call atten- 
tion to the play, not of J. H. Taylor this time, but to 
that of Mr. Thomas D. Armour, who beat Cyril 
J. H. Tolley in the final of the Amateur Champion- 
ship of France in 1920. Whilst on this topic, I would 
particularly point out that Mr. Armour, despite his 
lack of success in the post-war period, 1919-1920, 
appealed to me as being one of the finest exponents 
of the " still head " theory whom I have seen. One 
item on which I am in entire agreement with 
J. H. Taylor is the theory of stillness of the head, and, 
what is more important, stillness of the gaze. Let the 
ball go, but at the same time let your gaze be rivetted 
on the spot which the ball occupied for as much time 
as you may consider necessary — and do not fear of 
compelling your gaze to remain rooted for too long. 
It is obvious that once you have propelled the ball 
no amount of following the sphere with your optics 
will guide it towards the destination which you 



8 DRIVING, APPROACHING, PUTTING 

desired, and the more concentration you can place 
upon the ball before you strike it the more likely 
are you to get to the point which you aim at. 

I can conceive of no better exemplification of this 
idea than the case of the small boy throwing a ball 
into mid-air and catching it in his hand. He does 
not direct the pupils of his eyes upon the direction 
which his hands may or may not take ; rather does 
he watch the india-rubber ball, which gives him so 
much amusement and interest. Surely, therefore, 
the same theory must apply in the case of the golfer 
who, in a much more advanced way, seeks to indulge 
in accuracy of direction of a ball. Remember, that 
the said small boy has made up his mind upon truth 
of propulsion of the ball, and also remember that, in 
comparison with the direction of the golf ball, your 
problems are tenfold. Likewise, keep in mind that 
the same small boy in a short distance has allowed 
himself a margin of error extending to mere fractions 
of an inch, and also do not forget that in the golf 
stroke you are going to discover that an error of a 
fraction of an inch in a stroke is going to mean 
not a fraction of an inch when the shot has been 
completed, but a fraction of a mile. 

In 192 1 I had the opportunity of witnessing a 
number of golfing feats by J. H. Kirkwood, holder of 
the Australian and New Zealand Open Champion- 
ships, at the London Country Club, Hendon, and 
among those who witnessed performances which 
appealed to the average spectator as being con- 
comitants of wizardry was my old friend James B. 
Batley. Almost as great a believer in the steadfast 
gaze as Taylor himself, has been for years, Batley 



THE MASHIE 9 

and we had to confess a certain amount of astonish- 
ment at one trick which Kirkwood performed. It 
consisted of his laying seven balls in a direct line. 
I admit that the Antipodean juggling-golfer rather 
brought the face of his club across each ball as he 
struck it, but he never removed his gaze from the 
teeing ground of each ball. He kept his eye firmly 
fixed on the ground and did not lift his head once. 
Yet with a polo post as his avowed object from a 
distance of about one hundred and fifty yards, he got 
tolerably near to his target on many occasions, and 
once actually hit the top of the post which he had 
voluntarily said was his aiming point. Perhaps 
Kirkwood rather bordered on the trick shot which 
would have been more in keeping with happenings 
on a music-hall stage ; but one incontrovertible 
point has to be kept in mind, and that is that he kept 
his dark blue eyes in a position which focussed the 
resting place of each ball, and never once did he 
raise his gaze from the ground. I myself tried the 
stroke, or rather the series of strokes, and I am 
bound to admit that before I had got half way 
through the problem which had been set me, I was 
at a loss. I also admit that I was using Kirkwood's 
clubs, which contain more whippiness than the 
ordinary first class golfer is used to, and 'even if I 
beat him in one or two trick shots, there is this to 
his credit, that he proved that by keeping the eye 
focussed in a downward direction, and not letting it 
go shiftily to his left, the ball could be hit truly and 
in as straight a direction as the average golfer could 
wish to get. Furthermore, in his exhibition of 
playing a right-handed iron with his left hand, and 



10 DRIVING, APPROACHING, PUTTING 

so hitting the ball a goodly distance and with 
goodly direction, he proved one thing, if nothing 
else, and that was the theory of keeping the eye on 
the ball. 

One trick which he showed to us at Hendon was his 
ability to use a niblick with a tremendous backspin 
effect, and he showed that the feats with which he 
had been credited in Chicago were much more than 
empty talk. The secret of his success in this depart- 
ment lay in the fact that he got the focus of his sight 
imprisoned in a narrow grove, and he kept it within 
those limits — and to such an extent that by stretching 
his hand out he was able to grasp the ball as it des- 
cended from the air. It may seem that I have dealt 
at undue length with Kirkwood's achievements, but 
I quote them not so much as a contradiction to the 
incredulity with which the reports of them were 
received in this country, as a proof that one great 
secret in golf is the keeping of the eye on the ball. 
It has been asserted that of late years there has been 
a fetish among certain of we professional golfers in 
the matter of keeping the eye on the ball, but when all 
is said and done, from whatever point of view the 
thorough golfer may look at the matter, a strong gaze 
and a long gaze at the ball when it is stationary is 
not unprofitable, and, moreover, the longer you can 
gaze at the place that the ball occupied after its 
contact with your club in approach play, the better 
for the progress of your game. I hold no brief for 
J. H. Kirkwood or J. H. Taylor, but in either of the 
cases of these two men one does find a startling 
example of the truth of head still and gaze still. 
I well remember a caddie in the West of Scotland 



THE MASHIE 11 

who had the power of emulating the approach play 
of any golfer of note whom you might mention to 
him, and it did not require a great deal of golfing 
analysis to ascertain the particular individual whom 
he was imitating. This lad had the knack of imper- 
sonating almost anyone whom he had seen in his 
life in the half-iron stroke which, as is well known, 
even if not by my own remarks, is one of the most 
crucial strokes in the game. 

In approach play one finds character almost more 
than in any other department of golf, and the 
mannerisms of players who hail from the north, the 
south, the east, and the west are much too numerous 
for me to mention in this book. 

If anyone would desire approach play in excelsis, 
I would commend him to the play of the late 
James Douglas Edgar, who in 1919 and 1920 won 
the Canadian Open Championship, and who some 
years before that won the professional championship 
of Northumberland and Durham. Many times have 
I heard the question asked as to how Edgar attained 
so deadly a game in his approach play, and one 
explanation I can proffer is that in his boyhood in the 
North of England he aimed sometimes over and some- 
times under racecourse rails. For days and weeks 
and months, Edgar kept on at this somewhat trying 
process, but he never tired, so great was his 
enthusiasm ; and if all else be lacking in the golfing 
students' repertoire of experiments I can recommend 
no more profitable self-imposed lesson than the 
experimental iron shot in all its vagaries, its simpli- 
cities, and its tantalizing elements. 



CHAPTER IV 
FOR SCOFFING BEGINNERS 

IT may seem that I am contradicting the theory 
previously expressed in this book that driving 
is one of the most important things in golf as against 
J. H. Taylor's theory of approach play; but my 
point is that among novices and long handicap 
players there is a tremendous tendency to waste 
strokes in approach play as compared with play from 
the tee. I have known of golfers in the novitiate 
period who settled themselves down to leam how 
to drive — ^a very admirable thing. Similar^ I have 
known golfers in relatively the same position to 
acquire the art of putting as well as it could be 
acquired in a given time, but the number of cases in 
which I have known of beginners and moderate 
players wherein approach play has been studied 
almost from alpha to omega are by percentage very 
few. After all, putting does look simple, and I have 
in mind a famous exponent of a very ancient ball- 
game. He was Charles Dawson, the former biUiards 
champion who, on looking at a game of golf on the 
East Coast of Scotiand, was singularly struck by the 
apparent weakness in putting. He asked how many 
hours were spent per day by the particular players 
in practising, and, on his being informed that they 
worked by years and not by hours, he suggested that 
putting in perfection could be mastered within a 

12 



FOR SCOFFING BEGINNERS 13 

couple of months — and working four hours per day. 
He admitted that he would have to master the art 
of manipulation of the club in the first case, and that 
would be a more or less tedious affair. Then, he 
said, he would go in for a course of actually pla5ring 
a ball, and he opined that in something like half a 
year the golfing student would be in a fit position to 
go on with the game of golf. Well, that is a theory, 
and I have heard many theories, original and other- 
wise, on the same score concerning driving. There 
have been inventions to help the long handicap man 
in putting, as for instance a machine which I saw 
some time ago, the object of which was to cultivate 
a correct putting swing. Similarly I have seen a 
contrivance which measured the golfer's drive, and, 
not only that, but, on reference to a map, told him 
how many yards, dozens of yards or, if you like, how 
many hundred yards' he might be off the line. But 
never have I seen a mechanism of any kind to help 
the fellow who was unable to play his approach 
strokes to his satisfaction. 

Probably the most popular fault — ^if a fault can be 
popular — among long handicap men is the idea of 
getting loft. There is an impression that the player 
governs the ultimate destiny of the ball, and without 
a doubt I have observed a man striving after loft 
drop the right shoulder as the club head came towards 
the ball. Indeed, I have observed the right side 
almost bend to a preventive extent and, of course, 
what has happened has been that the club has 
descended much too soon. The result of so doing 
has been a bad miss and an utter forgetfulness of the 
fact that the mashie is constructed in the way it is 



14 DRIVING, APPROACHING, PUTTING 

so that its loft will raise the ball if the swing be 
properly played. As in all other golfing strokes, the 
swing is the thing to look after. Given that the 
swing is correct, or approximately correct, you will 
not fail. 

With the mashie you are required in the very first 
case to focus your glance on the place at which your 
ball may land. Of course, according to the nature of 
the ground, you must take into account which may or 
may not be the proper place for your ball to pitch. 
I mean to say that on a hard baked ground your ball 
must come in contact with terra firma a moderately 
decent length from the pin, whereas, if you have had 
a fairish quantity of rain, or the course on which you 
play happens to have a damp soil, you want to get 
much nearer to the hole than you otherwise would. 

At something less than a hundred yards the player 
of some little experience ought to be able at any rate 
to get sufficient of the " dead " element on the ball to 
make it become stationary within a dozen yards of 
where it lands, and for this stroke the stance must 
be watched. The player ought to stand slightly 
behind the ball and keep his right foot advanced, 
the effect being that the body rather faces towards 
the hole. A movement outwards is advantageous 
to the extent that the club as it descends rather 
crosses the body, and when it comes in contact with 
the ball, does so in a rather glancing fashion. It will 
at once be apparent to the player that there is a 
crispness in the ball as it leaves the club, and there 
will be a twist on it which will stop its going madly 
beyond the far edge of the green. The left arm must 
not be checked, and by its being allowed to go free. 



FOR SCOFFING BEGINNERS 15 

the club will go nicely through. Do not fall into the 
popular error of imagining that your ball will go too 
far. The flag is the thing to aim for, and you must 
aim to a point as near to the pin as can be attained. 

If you find a tendency to socket you can depend 
upon it that in nine cases out of ten the club in its 
backward swing has been brought into too close a 
proximity to the right leg. That being so, you do 
not stand a sporting chance afterwards, and there 
is too much of the outward push to allow you to do 
good. You will find in a case such as I have indicated 
that the club head has gone away to the off-side 
instead of to the left, and therefore the heel of the club 
head finds the ball. A position involving your 
standing closely to the ball to an extent brings about 
the same effect, but in most of the cases I have seen 
I have been forced to the idea that socketing was 
brought about by a bad swing such as I have indicated. 



CHAPTER V 
THE PUSH SHOT 

DESPITE the fact that it has been stated that 
there is no such thing as the push shot, I am 
convinced that such a shot is in existence, and if 
anyone wants to see the push in excelsis I can 
only recommend him to watch such a player as 
J. H. Taylor. Almost with every stroke one finds an 
element of the push in Taylor's play, if one excepts 
his mashie play. As a matter of fact, it is question- 
able if difference of opinion has raged round any other 
stroke so much as it has around the topic of the push. 
In short, I may explain that the head of the club 
comes into contact with the ball before the club 
has reached the deepest part of its swing. The arms 
are kept moderately rigid, and as the head of the club 
goes forward so does the weight of the body to an 
extent, the net result being that a goodly length is 
obtained without the ball soaring too much into the 
air. It may be said that the push stroke is the 
favourite stroke of cricketers, and I will admit that 
one of the finest exponents of it whom I have seen is 
the Hon. F. S. Jackson, the winner of the ParHa- 
mentary Handicap in 1920. Of all the amateurs I 
have seen I consider that Mr. Jackson plays the push 
shot best of all. 

When I want to attain this stroke there is an 
element of the advanced about my stance, and my 

16 



THE PUSH SHOT 17 

feet are slightly closed in on the ball. My grip goes 
a little before the club head, and the effect of that 
is that at the commencement the club loft is ap- 
preciably lessened. I endeavour to get a slight 
rigidity into the wrists, and the elbow of my right 
arm I seek to keep fairly well in. A dropping of the 
club across the shoulder must not be tolerated on 
any account, and there is no getting away from the 
fact that the right arm, if anything, predominates 
in the operation of this stroke. As the club descends 
the body should come forward, and that is where one 
comes to the most essential part of the manoeuvre. 
The club should come down with the lower part of 
the arms, and the wrists not containing too much 
flexibility, and that is the idea which brings about 
contact between the club head and the ball before the 
club head has reached its lowest point — always 
provided that the forward motion of the body is 
observed, and at the correct moment. Just at the 
instant when the club head strikes the ball the right 
wrist should operate to a very small extent, and 
likewise the club head should make a slight 
acquaintance with the turf just before it reaches 
the ball. 

I would emphasize that the push stroke is not an 
essay to be undertaken by the veriest novice, for not 
until the player has thoroughly gone through all the 
intricacies of the correct swing should he make the 
slightest attempt to master it. 

There seems to be an idea that the cleek is the one 
club with which one should attempt to play the push 
shot, but with that idea I scarcely concur. In fact, 
there is no logical reason why the iron, or even the 

2 



18 DRIVING, APPROACHING, PUTTING 

mashie, should not be employed in playing the push 
shot, and I have on occasion used the mashie and the 
iron to get push — and I have attained it. Indeed, 
I am convinced that push can be got more or less with 
any club used by a player through the green. 



CHAPTER VI 
HAZARDS 

JUST about the time I am writing this book, I 
have observed an account of how a parHamentary 
golfer engaged in a tournament at Harewood Downs 
had to play out of a motor car, as the result of a mis- 
directed stroke, and though I must generally confine 
myself to the matter of getting out of difficulties in 
the more orthodox hazard, I hope that as the result 
of what I write here the golfing student will be 
enabled to get out of most difficulties. It is too much 
to hope that each and every piece of trouble will at 
once be got out of by the golfer who reads this book, 
but what I will aim at is to give one or two hints 
which may prove of value in the conventional sand- 
bunker, or even in the problem of the hedge. On 
the ordinary course, as the average golfer knows it in 
England, if the shot out of a sand-bunker is played 
in the way in which it should be played, then not only 
should the ball be got clear of its troublous situation, 
but length should be got almost to the same extent 
as if the ball were lying on the fairway. To get 
nicely down to the ball is a most excellent theory, 
but it must be borne in mind that this idea, like many 
others, may very easily be overdone. Every good 
piece of advice may be carried to extremes, and I do 
not wish the student to follow my advice and then go 
further than I advise, in the hope that he will carry 
19 



20 DRIVING, APPROACHING, PUTTING 

the improvement in his game to a point beyond that 
which I had in mind. No need to smash the nibHck 
into the sand — far better to let the club meet the 
ball in a clean sort of way, and attain a delicacy 
without too high a percentage of brute force. 

Now we come to the player who finds himself with 
tree-branches occupying the line between his ball and 
the green. No one with a modicum of golfing com- 
mon sense thought at any time of hacking his ball 
through tree branches. In the very first place, it 
has to be remembered that the more force there is 
behind the ball the more risk there is of your stroke 
meeting ill fate in the event of its even grazing 
something which is in its way. Again, it is utter 
idleness to endeavour to get beneath tree branches 
unless the ball happens to be fairly near them. On 
the other hand, should the ball be in close proximity 
to the body of a tree, it will be found to be advanta- 
geous to go round the obstacle. 

With other hazards such as the wall and the 
hedge a great number of people endeavour to over- 
come the difficulty by getting in the rear of the ball 
to an inordinate extent, and with the face of the club 
lying back, but that I contend brings about a position 
of the arms and the wrists which is entirely foreign 
to golfing nature. In this operation there is little or 
no margin left for error, and if error be committed, 
then the punishment is well nigh beyond measure. 
The correct way to play in the circumstances which 
I have endeavoured to conjure up before you, is to 
allow the club head to meet the ball before the head 
has reached the lowest level in its swing, and a 
necessary item in this little scheme is to have the 



HAZARDS 21 

wrists rather beyond the ball just at the second when 
you hit it. There is thus an inclination to belittle 
the lofting of the club, and when I wish to increase 
the loft to some extent I let the toe of the club go 
out to a very slight distance. It may be that a little 
time will have to be spent in getting the stance 
which will avoid a tendency to slice, but time and 
trouble devoted to such a study will well repay the 
student. 

If the hedge is rather near to the ball, it will be 
found to be advisable to try and go through its 
poorest parts, while if one is confronted by a wall it 
is well within the bounds of possibiUty that the wall 
may be used for ricochet purposes. In this connexion 
I have in mind the performance of Mr. " Bobby " 
Jones in the British Amateur Championship of 192 1, 
at Hoylake. He had pulled so severely that his ball 
lay so close to a stone wall that there was not room 
for his body between the ball and the wall, and 
correspondingly there was not room for him to swing 
in the direction of the hole without his club fouling 
the wall. He straightway made up his mind that 
he would bang the baU against the wall, and so well 
did he calculate the effect that his ball rebounded from 
the waU and got to a position on the green within 
holing distance. 



CHAPTER VII 
THE WATER HAZARD 

1 CANNOT for a very long time see the small 
and non-floating ball going out of public favour, 
despite recent legislation, so that the problem of 
getting the ball out of the water hazard is likely to 
be as interesting as ever. In the first place, the water 
hazard is a more or less common institution on inland 
courses, though, as a matter of fact, one cannot say 
that on first class seaside courses the water hazard 
is absent — take, for instance, the Swilcan Burn at 
St. Andrews. Apropos of that hazard, I think I 
saw one of the finest essays that has ever been made 
in golf there. It was by Charles H. Mayo, in an 
event in 1919, which was at the time termed the 
unoflicial Open Championship, and before Mayo went 
to America. Mayo's ball found the bottom of the 
burn, and, without the slightest hesitation, he waded 
into the water, pitched obliquely into the air, and 
down came his ball within holing distance. That 
was a glorious example of the heroic in golf. Many 
players hold that it is best to bring the club down 
behind the ball a matter of an inch from the sphere, 
which, of course, savours very much of the 
*' explosion " stroke from a sand bunker. Still, I 
never could see that anything like reasonable distance 
could be got by playing out of a water hazard in this 
way. If the ball is not too mjich submerged it will 



THE WATER HAZARD 23 

be found advisable to allow the club to dive into the 
water, say, two and a half inches from the ball, for, 
by that manoeuevre I have always found that a part 
of the concussion caused by the club meeting the 
water reaches the ball and partially disturbs it. 
Obviously, by doing as I suggest, you will get a much 
cleaner stroke, and at the same time you will get 
more carry on your ball. Of course, as in many 
other golfing strokes, one has to keep in mind the 
peculiar circumstances, and if any student is so keen 
on the water hazard stroke as to desire to practise, it 
to any ordinary extent, I should advise hirn first of 
all to adorn himself in a costume resembling the 
sou'westers worn by the man seen in an advertise- 
ment for a certain tinned fish. 



CHAPTER VIII 
PLAYING IN THE WIND 

WHILE on the subject of hazards, it is perhaps 
meet that I should deal with the troubles 
which perplex the golfer on a course which is wind- 
swept, and I must confess that there is an element of 
the interesting on a windy course which is absent 
from the course that one very often finds in the 
vicinity of an industrial centre. Perhaps it is that 
many of our best amateurs and professionals of 
to-day have reached their standard of excellence 
on account of the fact that they have trained them- 
selves in boyhood on courses such as St. Andrews 
and Westward Ho. For instance, no one who has 
seen Braid can ever forget his long, low, and raking 
drive in the wind. Then, again, one cannot help 
but admire the beautifully delicate iron play of 
Taylor ; each of these references rather goes to prove 
that the golfer who has had his early years amidst 
gusty surroundings is likely to prove a better ex- 
ponent of the Royal and Ancient Game than is the 
man whose apprenticeship at golf has been served 
on an inland course. I know that I am risking the 
displeasure of thousands of men who can only get 
in their golf at week ends, and then only within a 
very short distance of such centres as London, 
Birmingham and Manchester, and at the same time 
I am fully aware that quite a number of good golfers 
have come from the ranks of business men, who only 

24 



PLAYING IN THE WIND 25 

get to a seaside course about once in a year. Still, 
one can always tell the player who has had the benefit 
of experience on the coast, and it must generally be 
admitted that there is a judgment about his play 
which is absent from that of his inland bred brother. 

Personally, I have rather a liking for a little wind, 
though, at the same time, I have no great affection 
for such weather conditions as were revelled in by 
Arnaud Massy at Hoylake some years ago when he 
won the Open Championship. 

There never was a greater mistake than that made 
by the people who argue that a properly struck ball 
is only affected by wind to a very small extent, and 
in strict truth when there is wind there is utterly no 
reason why it should not be employed to aid the 
golfer. Naturally the golfer must be a man with a 
fairly keen sense to do this, and here I would point 
out that I do not agree with the tactics of such 
players as a very well known Midland amateur, who, 
in all sorts of tournaments, big and little, deliberates 
on each tee with a handkerchief flying from his hand. 
It does not require a great deal of calculation to 
estimate the direction of the wind, and similarly 
the gauging of the strength of the wind should not 
be fraught with any undue difficulties. 

Take the drive in a head wind. Naturally one 
must get a drive of the low and raking order, much 
after the fashion of Braid's famous tee shot, and here 
it is as well to employ a fairly low tee. Now comes 
the question of the employment of the body — for 
assuredly the body plays a large part in the proper 
manipulation of the drive against the wind. It is 
quite correct to assume that the operation rather 



26 DRIVING, APPROACHING, PUTTING 

resembles that in the push stroke, for here, again, 
the club head must come in contact with the ball 
before the club has reached the lowest point in its 
swing. Let the body go forward in such a way as to 
help in preventing the ball from rising unduly, and let 
the hands go nicely forward. Despite the fact that 
many golfers will jump to the conclusion that the plan 
which I have here advocated must result in a bad 
stroke, I seriously put this argument forth, and with 
practice it will be found that what might have been 
taken as being the sure road to disaster will be found to 
be the correct way to play against the wind from the tee. 

As for the position of the feet, it is as well to have 
them in front of that which would ordinarily be 
assumed in the playing of the orthodox drive. The 
ball ought to be in closer relationship to the right 
foot, and at the same time it is as well not to be too 
lengthy in the back swing. 

Now we come to the question of driving in a fol- 
lowing wind, and here the obvious thing to do is to 
get the ball up instead of keeping it down. Another 
thing is that it has got to be raised fairly smartly. 
The body should not be allowed to operate in the 
downward swing, so that the club may have a decent 
chance to get to the ball, and, more than that, the 
club should have gone just a fraction past the lowest 
part of its swing before it touches the ball. The right 
leg should bear more weight than the left, and before 
the ball is struck it should be pretty well in a line with 
the left heel. The ordinary swing need not be 
departed from too much, and it should be kept in 
mind that the fuller it is the better. 

Then comes the point of the cross wind. Say the 



PLAYING IN THE WIND 27 

wind is blowing from left to right. You must more 
or less play into the wind, and at the same time 
employ a slight cut so that sometime after the ball 
has travelled from the club head it is being assisted 
by the wind. The left foot must not be allowed to 
go forward so that the necessary cut may be secured 
and security of stance will be found to be most 
beneficial in this stroke. The club face must not on 
any account turn out, and it will be found advan- 
tageous if it is kept in a trifle. Thus you will find 
that the club will descend rather across the line 
of flight, while the turning of the club obviates the 
risk of a sHce. Correspondingly the swing across 
renders a pull impossible. 

As may be imagined, the playing into a wind 
which is blowing from right to left is, to an extent, 
a reversal of the procedure I have just described. In 
this case one must play with a little pull, and, at 
that, the toe of the club may be turned out. The 
effect of this is that as your club descends your right 
hand may come over your left, and the result of that 
is that at the moment the club head strikes the ball 
the toe will come over. The club must not be 
allowed to come across the ball, and with that in mind 
I always aim to play as if for a pull. I aim to the 
right and with the toe turned out, and the right hand 
coming over causes the ball to circle in after having 
travelled some little way. 

In pla3dng to the green I have a preference for 
slicing or puUing into the wind, and here I may be 
compared with the zebra anent whom the question 
was asked as to whether he was a white horse with 
black stripes or whether he was a black horse with 



28 DRIVING, APPROACHING, PUTTING 

white stripes. But I feel bound to lay it down that 
in wind the drive is essentially one matter, while 
playing up to the green is entirely another. With 
the iron, the cleek, or the brassy, I endeavour to play 
in a side wind, if it is from the right to left, with a 
suspicion of cut so that when the ball is nearing the 
green it is to a degree rehant upon the wind for its 
direction. In such a stroke 570U cannot afford to 
throw away any help which the wind may give you, 
and, in common sense, why should you throw away 
physical energy when all the time nature is yearning 
to help you ? 

The club I most favour, in playing through the 
green, is the cleek, and after the player has become 
moderately proficient at golf he will find that it is 
a much more simple thing to keep the ball from 
rising by means of the cleek than it is to do so when 
using a wooden club. If it is found necessary to use 
the brassy, and if the wind be from the left, it may 
be found that a pull is necessary, and in such circum- 
stances it will be found advantageous to play slightly 
to the right. The feet may be kept as if for an 
ordinary shot, and the hand should come over about 
the time that the club head comes into contact with 
the ball. Of course, this remark is just as easily 
applicable to the cleek. 

In case the reader may be tempted after what I 
have said, to take into account windage at all con- 
ceivable moments, I would point out that when 
playing from a distance of about a hundred yards 
the ball should be hit true, and if that is done in a 
proper|manner, it will not be affected by the wind 
on such a short mission. 



CHAPTER IX 
PUTTING QUESTIONS 

WHO of ail golfers in the United Kingdom and 
elsewhere has not looked at things in the most 
despairing light, following failure on the putting 
green ? And, mark you, occasional weakness in 
putting is not by a very long stretch of imagination 
confined to the average player, or long handicap man, 
for all golfers know that the most proficient can miss 
short putts. Really, this is a phase of the game 
which I do not suppose will ever be surmounted. 

However, one argument I cannot agree with, and 
that is that the putter should be held much in the 
manner of a pendulum swinging from the wrists, and 
that the club should be made to move forward and 
backward in a straight line, with the head of the 
putter at right angles to the ball at all points of its 
motion. That I say cannot be done for the reason 
that the shaft is not constructed exactly at right 
angles to the club head, or if it is, then there is some- 
thing wrong with the implement as a golf club. At 
any time, the hands must not be above the ball in 
putting, but rather nearer the body, with the shaft 
of the club inclined from a point corresponding to 
the position of the ball towards the body, and thus 
it is obvious that a slight curve will be present in the 
playing of the stroke. As a matter of fact, when the 
swing is a short one, the curve is almost imperceptible, 
though, when the player is negotiating a putt of six, 
29 



30 DRIVING, APPROACHING, PUTTING 

nine, or more feet, the arc will be more evident ; and 
if a man tries to maintain a straight line as indicated, 
then he will of a surety pull the ball to the left. At 
the moment of the putter striking the ball, the toe 
of the club must be at right angles to the ball, and 
after the contact between the club head and the ball, 
the toe should to a small degree turn inwards. Per- 
haps it is that one does not by this method get 
exactly the amount of back-spin or drag, as you will, 
on the ball by this method as is got by exponents of 
other methods of putting ; but I myself like to see 
the ball moving along in a natural sort of way from 
the moment that I strike it, and I like to see that 
natural motion continue until the ball has reached 
the very lip of the hole. For one thing, you cannot 
depend upon it that there will not be small obstruc- 
tions in the way of various growths of grass on a 
putting green, or even a small weed here and there, 
and that is just where I contend that back spin or 
drag in the putt is worse than useless. It is then a 
cause of mischief. With a forward rolling of the 
ball, small obstructions are not so apt to cause ill 
effects, though I have proved on occasions that even 
with forward rolling the ball may meet with something 
which will deflect it, but not nearly so often, or to 
the same extent, as in the case of drag or back spin. 
Granted that now and then a little drag is advisable, 
for instance, as when playing a downhill putt, yet 
the golfer will not leave himself with a downhill putt 
if he can possibly get an uphill one, all other things 
being equal. 

Now, in putting, it is a pronounced weakness if 
the body is allowed to sway, for I have never yet 



PUTTING QUESTIONS 31 

seen a man who could keep good direction if he 
allowed his body to heave in the act of putting. 
Once allow the body to move, and there is at once 
the deadly risk that the hands will go forward with 
too much speed, and here I would mention that the 
wrists should be allowed to do the necessary work, 
though an element of the rigid may be imparted to 
them in the case of simple, short putts. In putting, 
the left hand should come well through. The club 
should be brought forward with the right hand, the 
while the left acts, more or less, asasteadying'influence. 

As most golfers know, there is sometimes a bit of 
ground on the putting green to be " borrowed," that 
is to say, the undulation on the green may cause 
a man to play so much to the right or left of the 
hole, as the case may be. Study the line you intend 
to take to the hole, and study it thoroughly. Then 
glue your gaze on the ball, and do not allow it to come 
away from that ball until you have sent the ball on 
its mission, for in putting, as in any other department 
of golf, an unsteady eye on the ball is disastrous. 

Despite what has been said by experts, I cannot 
get away from the conviction that the middle of the 
club head is the point which should come in contact 
with the ball, and, personally, I feel that something 
has gone wrong if the ball goes otf any other point 
than the dead centre of the club head in putting. 

Many times ' I have been asked questions anent 
the stymie, and pretty well invariably I have replied 
that if a man has got a dead stymie laid him and he 
is within one yard of the hole, sooner than play for 
curve to get round his opponent's ball, it is niuch 
easier for him to loft his own ball by means of a 
niblick. The great consideration here is that in 



32 DRIVING, APPROACHING, PUTTING 

playing the curve you have only the lip of the hole to 
play at, and the margin for error is such as to make 
the operation exceedingly risky. If, on the other 
hand, you have a long putt, with your opponent's 
ball lying up near the hole, you may find that lofting 
is entirely out of the question. Then you may be 
compelled to play to the right of the other ball, and 
whenever I am faced with such a situation I find it 
beneficial to adopt a fairly upright stance. Even 
though the player is using a fiat putter, he can adopt 
this stance and hit the ball with the toe of the putter, 
so that there is a healthy tendency to pull, or, in other 
words, get an inward swerve. 

One thing I have found, and that is that I prefer to 
play spin shots on putting greens boasting a fairly 
liberal grass growth, as the said spin seems to get 
more of a grip than it does on the keen and almost 
grassless green. 

As for the lie of the grass, I maintain that this 
question is one for general observation and keen 
eyesight. I have played on a putting green with 
three different growths of grass, and on this score I 
hold that there is nothing like common sense. 

No matter what the growth of the grass may be, 
the man faced with the putt of a yard and a half 
should hit the ball firmly to the back of the hole, and 
the moderately upright stance already alluded to 
will come in useful, especially if, as I consider, half 
the short putts should be hit to the right of the hole. 
A possible mistake is slackness of the wrists, and, to 
correct that, I stiffen my wrists, which I find enables 
me to go for the back of the hole. Apart from the 
wrist work itself, I find that I push out to the right 
of the hole if I crouch too much. 



CHAPTER X 
ADVICE AT RANDOM 

IT must not be assumed that the golfer has only 
to read, learn, and inwardly digest what I have 
written in this book and the preceding one to enable 
him straightway to proceed to one of the big courses 
and there in open competition win fame for himself. 
I have in mind a friend of mine who is most insistent 
upon mentioning when he confesses that he is a 
handicap twenty man, that theoretically, he is plus 
four. That is just the sort of spirit which will prevent 
the golfing student from advancing one whit, and it 
is a stupid notion. All the Uterature in the world 
is of no avail if the reader does not back it up with 
good, hard practice, and on the obverse side of the 
picture we, of course, find that there is a grave risk 
in a player going on practising in his own way in 
solitude if he has not read golfing advice, or if he has 
not watched some famous golfer or golfers. It 
seems to me similarly to be a bad plan for the 
enthusiastic golfer to soak himself through and 
through with golfing literature, and all the while 
neglect to attend to the practical side of the business. 
No man ever took a prominent place in golf, or any 
other game, who did not devote as much time as he 
possibly could to sheer downright hard practice. No 
matter what anyone says, even among the best 
golfers in the world, each has some little weakness in 
3 33 



34 DRIVING, APPROACHING, PUTTING 

his game for a number of years, and, believe me, he 
does not overcome that weakness excepting by hard 
and prosaic practice. It wonid astonish some people 
if they only knew how much time is spent by some of 
our golfing giants in little experiments at various 
times in their Uves. I well remember the late Tom 
Ball once informing me how he came to be such a 
good putter. He confided to me that for many years 
his putting, or his lack of ability to putt caused him 
many sleepless nights. He lay in bed, he said, and 
thought out theories, many and varied, but the one 
thing which he found to be beneficial was practice. 
I also remember many years ago when James Douglas 
Edgar was a mere youth. Edgar, it may be re- 
called, afterwards became Canadian Open Champion, 
but at the time which I have in mind he was a mere 
stripling, though very much intent on obtaining 
perfection, or something near it, in his approach 
play. He used to go out to a piece of ground 
adjacent to a racecourse, and he spent hours and 
hours — ^yes, weeks in the aggregate — ^practising 
approaches. He had as his stock-in-trade a few 
dozen balls, three or four iron clubs, and the white 
rails of the racecourse. He aimed at approaching 
over the rails, going under the rails, striking the rails, 
and even at bringing the ball to rest against the 
uprights. The effect of all that was clearly seen in 
192 1, when Edgar returned to England on a mission 
which combined business with pleasure ; and when 
he arrived in this country it was generally conceded 
that he was one of the finest approach players in the 
world. To go back to putting, Mr. Bernard Darwin, 
the old university player who ousted the last of the 



ADVICE AT RANDOM 35 

American " invaders " from the recent British 
Amateur Championship at Hoylake, has recorded that 
in his undergraduate days his putting concerned him 
so much that he spent nights and nights practising 
on the carpet in his private room. Indeed, he said, 
so assiduous was he in his practising to putt at the 
four legs of his table in turn, that he wore grooves 
in the said carpet. Surely, then, if players such as 
those whom I have mentioned have found good, hard 
practice to be beneficial, it can do no harm to the 
more moderate golfer. 

A point which is sometimes neglected by many 
famous players, is that of local rules ; and I would 
emphasize the wisdom of the player making himself 
acquainted with such local rules as early as he 
conveniently can when he goes away to a strange 
course. There comes to my mind a player who has 
held the British Amateur Championship, and who, 
incidentally, holds the weird advantage of being able 
to play a game of snooker pool and simultaneously 
play half dozen men at chess. That player is so 
earnest on local rules that practically as soon as he 
sets his foot upon a foreign course he makes it his 
business to find out what the local rules are. Many 
a time have I known cases of players unthinkingly 
neglect to become conversant with the peculiar rules 
of the club which they are visiting, and the result 
in many cases has been loss of strokes in important 
competitions. I have even known of a famous 
amateur championship competitor, who took part 
in the St. George's Cup competition some years ago, 
and the effect of his misinterpretion of the rules 
at Sandwich was so serious that it had a very impor- 
4 



36 DRIVING, APPROACHING, PUTTING 

tant bearing on the matter of who won the Cup that 
year. 

One little matter has been brought to my notice 
scores and scores of times, and that is the complaint 
of the man who plays more on inland courses than on 
seaside courses. The trouble of such a man, accord- 
ing to what he has told me, is that in the winter he 
finds that he cannot get the length that he can in 
the summer. Indeed, more than one golfer has come 
to me, and in the most mystified way gone to great 
pains to tell me that his game had somehow shortened. 
Never was there such an absolute fallacy. The fact 
of the matter is that a golfer who can reach a given 
green in the summer with a wooden club and an iron 
club must not expect to do the same in the winter 
time. It is quite obvious in the very first place that 
a man's tee shot on a nice dry course is going to have 
almost yards of run in the summer time for the inches 
it will have in the winter time. Therefore, there is 
no need to worry about your having to take two 
wooden clubs to a green in the winter — ^just take 
them. 

1^ Still another query has been addressed to me on 
occasion, and it concerns holing out from the tee. 
" How is this sort of thing done, and why is it that 
one hears of so many holes in one being done by 
amateurs of moderate golfing ability, and so very 
seldom by first class golfers ? " I well remember the 
story a few years ago of the very enthusiastic member 
of a club not a hundred miles from London. This 
golfer showed a wonderful penchant for holing in 
one, and the representative of a well known London 
daily paper was dispatched to the course for the 



ADVICE AT RANDOM 37 

purpose of getting a good " story " about the wonder- 
ful golfer. On the arrival of the journalist it was 
ascertained that as in the case of so many other clubs, 
there was an unwritten law that a member who did 
a hole in one should pay for drinks for all who hap- 
pened to be in the club, and, in addition, he should 
provide his caddie with a bottle of whisky. 

These facts were well known to a small circle of the 
caddies attached to the club, and that small circle, 
as things turned out, had formed themselves into a 
Uttle school, one of the members of which stationed 
himself at a *' bUnd " hole whenever this club member 
was on the course. The rest of the story may be left 
to the imagination. 

I also have in mind the case of a motoring journaUst 
who visited the Isle of Man to attend a motor race 
meeting. This young man was a golfer of such 
distinction that on the course he could give five 
bisques to one of his friends whose ideas of golf were 
very much advanced if his execution of the game was 
not up to the same standard. At any rate the 
motorist-golfer took his clubs with him to the island 
and at one hole he found the bottom of the tin from 
the tee. So great was his glee that he straightway 
rushed off to a telegraph office and wired the "story " 
to Britain's premier news agency. 

It must be admitted that holing in one does seem 
to be a feat more often accompHshed by the average 
player and the long handicap player than the scratch 
or plus man. I believe it is a fact that Harry Vardon 
has not once in his career holed out in one stroke, 
while, on the other hand, Alec Herd is credited with 
having done fifteen holes in one, which performance 



38 DRIVING, APPROACHING, PUTTING 

he has done on his own course at Coombe Hill on no 
fewer than eleven occasions. Still, Herd's case is the 
exception which proves the rule. I am afraid I can 
give no reliable advice on how to hole in one, and it 
seems to me marvellous how seldom this is accomp- 
lished, when one comes to reckon up the number of 
persons who play at a given short hole at a given 
course during a week end. Indeed, the only sug- 
gestion which I can offer is that the pin be stuck in 
the green a yard, or a couple of yards, to the right 
of the hole, or to the left. Then perhaps we may hear 
of more holes in one. 

Before I conclude this chapter I should like to deal 
with the wonderful spread of golf within a com- 
paratively short time, for now seems to be the least 
inappropriate time for dealing with it. A matter of 
thirty years ago golf was Scotland's game and, 
generally speaking, was unknown in England, but 
with Mr. John Ball, Mr. Hilton, and J. H. Taylor 
winning the Open Championship in the nineties a 
fillip was given to the game in England. The result 
was that whereas for nearly thirty years up until the 
time Mr. Ball first took the Open Championship out 
of Scotland, it had always gone to a Scottish pro- 
fessional, not once since then has it gone to a pro- 
fessional resident in Scotland. That, in itself, shows 
how assertive have been the tentacles of the Royal 
and Ancient Game in recent years, and I think it safe 
to say that no other game can lay claim to such 
wonderful strides as golf has made in such a short 
period. Golf is a game different from most others. A 
man may go alone to his course at any odd time, and 
he is sure to pick up a game, whereas with cricket. 



ADVICE AT RANDOM 39 

football, and other pastimes all sorts of organization 
is necessary. I do not intend to go into the argu- 
ments as to the gentleness and the soothing nature 
of golf, as I for one have had many anxious moments 
on the course. Still, from the point of view of the 
amateur I have no doubt that golf is a shade in front 
of other games from the standpoint of convenience. 



CHAPTER XI 
BRITISH GOLF COURSES 

THE very pertinent query may be put to me as 
to what I think of some of the courses of 
Britain, and, whilst on this topic, I should like to 
express the hope that within a few years we shall see 
more municipal courses throughout the kingdom than 
we now have. Logically there is no reason why a 
big municipality near to the coast should not own a 
course which would compare with any in the United 
Kingdom, and I am positive that a first class course 
is an asset to any town. That is a hint which I give 
free gratis and for nothing to any enterprising town 
near the sea. Incidentally, I should hke to make a 
plea for the golf club when of a private nature to be 
more like the t5rpe of club I have come across in the 
United States where when a club is constructed it is 
built half on the hotel principle. 

As for the courses in Great Britain, it must be 
admitted even by those who criticise St. Andrews 
in certain details that it almost seems as if it were 
laid out specifically for golf by nature. Strangely 
enough, a great number of years ago, St. Andrews 
was a narrow course, and it is also notable that now 
it is pretty weU as wide an any. It has been said that 
to an extent the widening of the course has been 
brought about by continued pla5dng in among the 
whins, but it is a stern fact that the length of the holes 

40 



BRITISH GOLF COURSES 41 

remains approximately the same as in previous 
generations. One thing about St. Andrews is that 
to the casual visitor it appears to be very much 
easier than it really is, but he is quickly disillusioned 
when he goes out, for what with the undulating 
nature of the ground and those terrible breezes that 
sweep in from the North Sea sometimes, the golfer, 
should he be a little bit slack, will find trouble of the 
most acute description. The story is told of a well 
known American golfer who went to St. Andrews. 
Without any trepidation he set out, but his assurance 
had completely evaporated by the time he had 
finished his round, for he remarked, " They tell me 
there are over a hundred sand bunkers on this course, 
and I am sure I have been in every one." Generally 
the greens are true if they are on occasion hard and 
keen ; though their size is something which is not 
equalled on any other course that I have visited. 
It almost seems a pity that some of the holes cannot 
be lengthened, for at the third, fourth, sixth, seventh, 
eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh, twelfth, sixteenth, 
and eighteenth, the drive may as likely as not find the 
green. Still, although I do refer to these elements 
of weakness, it must be admitted that to a large 
extent the weakness is due to the advance in the 
rubber ball. The story was entirely different in the 
old gutta ball days, for then quite a large number of 
the holes required a second shot with a wooden club, 
and then it had to be really straight if it were to avoid 
disaster. At that time the holes were well guarded 
on the left, whilst the whins lay on the left so that 
St. Andrews was a most testing course. Never- 
theless, there is an atmosphere about St. Andrews 



42 DRIVING, APPROACHING, PUTTING 

which is all its own. The City is truly historic, 
and to those whose tastes include the antiquarian 
as well as the golfing, I can do no better than commend 
the ruins of the old cathedral. 

Prestwick is another course on the championship 
rota with many traditions, and it resembles Sandwich 
more than it does St. Andrews. Prestwick naturally, 
being situated on the West Coast of Scotland, gets a 
fairly plentiful supply of rain, and that probably is 
the reason for its most excellent turf, but Prestwick, 
like St. Andrews, though it forms a most severe 
golfing test, is not the course it was in the old gutta 
ball days. Then the " Cardinal," the " Himalayas," 
and the " Alps " were most fearsome things, though 
truth to tell, the " Cardinal " is still a hazard to be 
dreaded. No one knows that better than does James 
Braid, for in the Open Championship there in 1908, 
Braid got into that bunker and required seven strokes 
to get out. However, as Braid won that Champion- 
ship he is, perhaps, inclined to be forgiving. The 
" Cardinal " bunker is really one of the features of 
British golf. It is a great wide sweeping hazard, 
so deep that its face has to be shored up with railway 
sleepers, and as it is less than two hundred yards 
from the tee no great imagination is required to depict 
the awful trouble which it may mean. 

The other championship course in Scotland, 
Muirfield, the property of the Honourable Company 
of Golfers, and nestling in on the coast of Hadding- 
tonshire, has very often been criticized, though I, 
for one, have a sneaking regard for it since I won the 
Open Championship there. One does not get an 
inordinate amount of run at Muirfield and the fair- 



BRITISH GOLF COURSES 43 

ways, being on the narrow side, do not allow for any 
great margin of error, which probably accounts for 
the fact that the scores in championships there are 
rather higher than in the championship on other links. 
I have a great regard for the Westward Ho 
course, which was added to the championship rota 
just a year or two before the outbreak of the war. 
The first and second holes, and the seventeenth and 
eighteenth are not of the undulating character, but 
the fairways are narrow, while on either side is a 
combination of thin grass growing to nearly a foot 
and small stout rushes. Should a player at West- 
ward Ho get in among that stuff then of a truth he 
wants to have some abiUty with his nibHck. The 
rushes at Westward Ho are a thing apart, as they 
grow in places much taller than a man. Incidentally, 
they are said to be poisonous at certain seasons of 
the year. Their strength is prodigious, as is evidenced 
by so many golf balls having been found impaled 
in those r^shes. No wonder that a local rule permits 
of a player picking out of the rushes and dropping 
under the penalty of a stroke. These rushes are more 
proUfic in the vicinity of the point about half way 
through the round. The Westward Ho course, 
which is situate in the historic quarter of Devonshire, 
round about Bideford, is noted for its fifth, eighth, 
fourteenth, and sixteenth holes. Each of these is 
a one shot hole, and many consider that the last 
mentioned is the best short hole in the world. The 
putting greens on the Royal North Devon Club's 
Course are in a class by themselves, and woe betide 
any player who does not use his brain when he is on 
the green at Westward Ho. 



44 DRIVING, APPROACHING, PUTTING 

A unique feature about Westward Ho is the 
wonderful Pebble Ridge. This is a ridge of pebbles 
varying in size and with some almost as big as a 
man's head. As a matter of fact, this Ridge has 
almost invariably saved the course from severe 
flooding from the Atlantic during the gales which 
abound on the West coast, though some people have 
fears that one day the ridge will give best to Neptune. 
It is estimated that in the last half century this Ridge 
has been forced inland over a quarter of a mile, and 
one of the features at Westward Ho is the noise made 
by the Atlantic throwing about the stones on the sea 
side of this barrier. Westward Ho, it may be noted, 
is the oldest of all the seaside courses south of the 
Tweed. 

Another Championship Course, that of the Royal 
Liverpool Club at Hoylake, commenced with very 
smaU beginnings. Originally, play started from the 
side of the green adjoining the roadway opposite 
the present club house. Hoylake is a splendid test 
of accurate golf. The holes are of a very nice length, 
and the greens have good surfaces. The Royal 
Liverpool Club officials have emulated the authorities 
at St. Andrews in giving a name to each hole, and it 
is questionable if so many first class players have 
been contributed to golf by any other club. 

The Championship Course at Sandwich is the 
property of the Royal St. George's Club, and golf 
was commenced there nearly forty years ago by a 
small number of London Scotsmen, headed by Dr. 
Laidlaw Purves. Everyone who goes to Sandwich 
is naturally desirous of seeing the famous " Maiden," 
and this hill hazard certainly is worth looking at. 



BRITISH GOLF COURSES 45 

The course itself has not too many drawbacks from 
the point of view of the strong driver, and the putting 
greens are spacious if not too closely guarded. As 
might be expected in this quarter of England, the 
wind is one of the chief hazards. A point about the 
Sandwich course is that its full length is not utilized 
at Championship meetings, but the course is played 
at its full length on the occasion of the annual com- 
petition for the St. George's Cup. Under the deed 
by which the St. George's Cup was presented, the 
competition for the trophy, which is the most magnifi- 
cent in the world's golf, has to be from the back tee, 
and to this day the full available playing length of 
the Sandwich Course is utilized in the Cup Competi- 
tion. 

One of the last courses to be added to the Cham- 
pionship rota was that of the Royal Cinque Ports 
Club at Deal, and these links almost abut on the 
Sandwich course. 

Too much land was not available when the Deal 
Course was laid out, and a great misfortune befel 
the authorities there when part of their links was 
taken over for military purposes during the war. 
Military exigencies demanded that trenches should 
be dug here and there, and the result was that to an 
extent the course had to be remodelled. An interest- 
ing feature at Deal is that practically the whole of 
the outward journey is in one direction and almost the 
whole of the last nine holes in the opposite direction, 
so that whichever way the wind blows the player 
almost inevitably has his work cut out to do a good 
round. The fairways are dotted by valleys and 
small hills, so that one cannot always depend on 



46 DRIVING, APPROACHING, PUTTING 

getting the best of lies. The " Sandy parlour," or 
fourth hole, has been criticized many a time and 
oft, but there is no gainsa5dng that good golf is 
required there. A big sand hill guards the green, and 
the hole is blind, but once the golfer learns the 
intricacies of the Deal Links, he will find it a most 
interesting course. Some of the two shot holes at Deal 
are most fascinating, and I, for one, think that the 
Royal Cinque Ports Course has been improved by 
the alterations which had to be made when the course 
was handed back to the club by the military, following 
the end of the war. 



INDEX 



Approach Play, 4, 5, 10, 11 
Armour, T. D., 7 



Ball, J., 38 
BaU, T., 34 
Batley, J. B., 8 
Braid, J., 24, 25, 42 
Bunkers, 41 

Cleek, 28 
Courses, 40, 41 



Dawson, C, 12 
Deal, 44, 45 



Edgar, J. D., 11, 34 
Grips. 2 



Hazard Play, 19-21 
Herd, A., 37 
Hole, In one, 36, 37 
Hoylake, 44 



Iron Play, 1-3 



Jackson, Hon. F. S., 16 
Jones, " Bobby/' 21 



KiRKWOOD, J. H., 8-10 



Loft. 13, 26, 32 

Mashie, 6, 7, 14 
Massy, A., 25 
Mayo, C. H., 22 
Muirfield, 42 

Pitch, 5 
Practice, 33, 34 
Prestwick, 42 
Push Shot, 16, 17 
Putting, 29-31 

Rules, Local, 35 



Sandwich, 44, 45 

Spin, 32 

Stances, i, 2, 6, 7, 14, 27, 32 

St. Andrew's, 41, 42 

Stymies, 31 

Swing, 2, 3, 14, 15 



Taylor, J. H., 4, 7, 10 
Tee, 3, 25 
ToUey, C. J. H., 7 



Vardon, H., 37 



Water, 22, 23 
Westward Ho I 42, 43 
Wind, 24-27 



47 



Printed in Great Britain by Jarrold & Sons, Limited, Norwich. 



BRENTANO'S 

BookBellers & Stationers 

WaBhIngtou, D. C. 



